Abdul Taib Mahmud’s victory is a hollow one. What is there to be victorious about when you have allegedly cheated and defrauded the people of Sarawak from exercising their true democratic rights?

There were various allegations of vote-rigging and other voting irregularities, coupled with the rumour that Taib had handed out cash and gifts to voters just before polling day.

We shouldn’t be surprised, as BN has been practising for over three decades, to perfect their technique at cheating. Naturally, the Election Commission has joined the police and the judiciary, to act like it is another extended arm of BN.

The opposition’s impotence to deal with the undesirable outcome of the Sarawak election is very revealing.

In addition, public apathy towards vote-rigging is disgusting. The outrage felt by a few pockets of the community hardly registers. Many Malaysians would prefer to look the other way. They don’t care which party, corrupt or otherwise, wins, as long as they can cari makan.

The lips of royalty are conveniently sealed. This is the rare occasion when we would have welcomed their input, at voicing their displeasure with BN’s version of democracy strangling the nation.

So how did Malaysians react to the fraudulent election results? In typical tidak apa fashion, we continued as if nothing unusual occurred.

BN knows it has the upper hand in every aspect of our lives. The leaders in BN are too thick, too arrogant and too blind to acknowledge that riding roughshod over citizens is denying every Malaysian their basic human right, which is the right to vote in a free, fair, transparent and open election.

In other parts of the world, countries which experience similar vote-rigging would have seen mass unrest and an outpouring onto the streets to demand that things are put right.

In addition, there would have been condemnation from the international community. Ambassadors and High Commissioners have important roles besides having cocktail do’s to promote trade, but this time, they preferred to keep quiet.

Britain, Malaysia’s former colonial master was silent. It, too, was weighing the economic considerations rather than risk jeopardising relations with Malaysia.

Prime Ministe r Najib Abdul Razak is very generous when he goes on his shopping sprees, to purchase defence equipment.

France had two Scorpenes and an Agosta which no other nation wanted. These were bound for the scrapyard but the French managed to sell them for a handsome profit to a nation with vain leaders who must be seen with the latest gadgets.

Obviously, countries with arms to sell, will hesitate from criticising us. Even the Commonwealth has been muted.

The US has also said nothing. Malaysia is their model, moderate, Muslim nation and we have fallen in with the US policy to impose sanctions on Iran.

President Barrack Obama knows that Malaysia is highly regarded within the community of Muslim countries. He values our influence with these Muslim nations, many of which are highly volatile, like Iran. So why should the US say anything about Taib and BN allegedly spending in excess of RM500 million to rig the latest Sarawak election?

Taib has won

No one is suggesting that there should be violence on the streets but a mass demonstration might be the only way to show the authorities our displeasure.

Didn’t we elect our MPs to be our servants? Don’t we pay their wages? They are not chosen to manipulate us for their own means.

If we protested and acted as one, and refuse to give up after the first failed attempt, what can the authorities do? There aren’t enough cells to contain several hundred thousands of us.

We have not registered our disapproval forcefully enough. Our response has been less than lukewarm, that the foreign media does not consider us worthy of a few column inches in their papers.

Some Malaysians have blamed the Ibans for accepting money from Taib. Perhaps money did exchange hands. But if you are on RM10 a day, RM1,000 does seem like a lot of money.

Taib’s strategy has been to keep the indigenous population uneducated and ignorant, so that they can be easily manipulated.

To blame the people for accepting money is not fair because prior to the elections, the sentiment on the ground was that BN was finished.

What if the bribe is a smokescreen to hide the worse of two evils - that of swapping the original ballot boxes with ones stuffed with BN votes?

There have been unsubstantiated reports of ballot boxes being ditched in rivers, jungles or the sea and substituted with boxes which will determine a BN win.

When the voting is rigged and fixed, there can be no meaningful analysis of the results. It would be pointless to do so. What the people voted for has been swapped for something completely different. An analysis would not be a true reflection of the voting pattern.

Naturally, BN would not dare to radically alter those seats which are obvious DAP strongholds, for instance. That would only cause a backlash which would invite intense scrutiny that would immediately reveal Taib’s dirty tactics.

Hence, Taib would only swap boxes in those areas which will not invite too much attention. He has had many decades to practise.

The fact is, whichever way the Sarawakians have voted, Taib has won.

Taib was never going to allow the opposition to win. He might tinker with the figures, but he would make sure BN will triumph.

Just imagine what RM500 million could have done for Sarawak. Sadly, this was taxpayers’ money - yours and mine. We would have preferred that money to be used for building more schools, clinics, roads, bridges and flood barriers, and to lift the people out of poverty. Instead, the money was used to keep Taib in power.

How many of Taib's promises will he fulfil  before GE-13?

This is not the first time the question is posed but what can we do, as a team, to rid us of a corrupt government?

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Perak, a bucket chemist and an armchair eco-warrior. In ‘real-speak’, this translates into that she comes from Ipoh, values change but respects culture, is a petroleum chemist and also an environmental pollution-control scientist.